Women's Media Nation | Social, political, and cultural issues relating to women

Studio films are directed by white men

posted by Women & Hollywood
Monday, August 24, 2009 at 5:46pm CDT

In a no shit sherlock moment, The NY Times took a look at who has been in the director’s seat for the major studio releases this year.

Of the 85 or so live action films to be released by the big studios in 2009 — Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers –93% are directed by white men with an average age of 45 years.

Though Hollywood’s power structure remains heavily white, it has opened the ranks to far more women in recent years. But that shift does not yet appear to have changed the makeup of the studio directing pool.

The article puts out the point that having a homogenized pool of directors might actually make business sense because box office has been growing (of course they are charging more) so venturing outside of the boys club is too nerve racking cause who knows if women or people of color can deliver a big box office hit. This is such bunk.

But there is an obvious minus. Directors who are overwhelmingly of the same sex and ethnicity can hardly be expected to tap all of the cinematic potential in a rich and roiling humanity. Uniformity would seem to shut out potential viewers and revenue. But there is really no way to be sure whether sales would go up or down if the studio directing pool were more diverse.

I really hate the sentence: “there is really no way to be sure whether sales would go up or down if the studio directed pool were more diverse.” That sentence reeks of discrimination. Same shit was said before women got the right to vote. Same shit was said before African Americans got the right to vote. Same shit was said before we had a women Supreme Court justice. Sane shit was said before we got an African American president.

The fact that in this business it’s ok to say you know we are making money now with only white guys who cares about the rest of the people with fresh ideas and vision. Fuck um. Let’s make another movie about a toy.

It’s time this regressive philosophy got an update.